Buying and selling, especially the open air variants, are everywhere. There are the roadside hawkers of woven baskets alongside dusty rural lanes and the spread-on-a-blanket books, audio media and collections of personal detritus for sale on the sidewalks of most cities. A step up are the armadas of wheeled conveyances dragged, towed and pushed from far flung overnight resting and provisioning halls to their claimed corners and favorite spots every morning. Yet another rung up gets you an open fronted stall in a warren like the one in this painting of the Phoenix Mall located on the southeast corner of Lafayette and Canal in Manhattan.
When I was very small I would visit my maternal grandparents in their tiny grocery store in the Bronx and marvel at how it all worked. My grandmother could add up a bill in her head faster than any ten-keyer or cash register, and just as accurately. To this day, despite much observation, reading, and first hand experience in service and manufacturing operations of my own I still scratch my head at the wild range of styles and magnitudes that comprise the worlds of business and commerce. Hundreds of millions of dollars are paid to some very young founders of internet startups that haven't a clue of how to sell anything other than their firms, and elsewhere whole families struggle to keep the lights on working crushing hours to extract a miniscule profit from the margins they manage to find between buying or making and selling.
I've had a rich life, and aquired lots of stuff related to various enterprises, but never had much cash, so I tend to live pretty frugally. I still fall prey to the pleasures of the street, though. In my early teens I'd frequently make my way via bike and train to Canal street to begin a long stroll past all the hardware, machinery surplus and junk shops that used to line both sides of the street for many blocks in those days. Sometimes my eyes were bigger than my wallet and I'd end up selling pen and ink sketches for fifty cents at Grand Central station to raise enough for train fare back home. And I've still got some of those gizmos, too...
My wonderful gallery representation: LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
And as always, you can also contact me directly by email: info@sethtane.com and follow my occasional photo posts on: Instagram